The Arroyo Seco cuts a steep canyon through the west side of Pasadena, separating it from the hilly neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles. As Pasadena grew, this canyon posed a daunting obstacle to accessing the neighborhoods to the west, one that would be bridged over many times to link both sides of the canyon. Although the stream of the Arroyo Seco itself is confined to a narrow concrete channel for most of its length through Pasadena, the adjoining landscape is far more natural than that along the Los Angeles River. Beneath the many bridges that span the canyon, the wooded canyon offers a lovely secluded bit of nature close to Old Pasadena.
As you walk through the park, you’ll find the aging remnants of old park infrastructure: a crumbling stone wall here, an old bench there. The cliff face on the west side of the canyon holds numerous staircases that seem to vanish into the overgrowth, while castle-like mansions poke out on the ridge above, aloof and disconnected from the nature beneath them. In contrast to Pasadena’s typically heavily-cultivated parks, such as the lush lawns surrounding the Rose Bowl just to the north, Lower Arroyo Park feels mostly forgotten by the city above.
Ironically, the Lower Arroyo was once home to a major tourist attraction. In the 1900s, Adolphus Busch (of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company) turned his summer home at the southern end of the park into an elaborate garden filled with statues, picturesque buildings, and waterfalls. This was the original “Busch Gardens,” long before it turned into a chain of amusement parks, and it stayed opened until the 1930s before it was closed and replaced with a residential neighborhood, with few traces of the gardens remaining.
But it’s the grace of the Colorado Street Bridge, proclaimed the highest concrete bridge in the world upon completion in 1913, which really draws your breath. With its majestic arches rising 150 feet into the sky, the Colorado Street Bridge is a historic Beaux Arts bridge that spreads over the Arroyo Seco to ease travel between Pasadena and Los Angeles. Before the bridge was built, people had to go down into the Arroyo Seco, cross the river and come back up the other side. Today it offers visitors picturesque views of the city and is featured in several television shows and movies. Most recently the Colorado Street Bridge was featured in the 2016 film "LA LA Land."